True! I tried to watch a Perspective where he wasn't the host. It was incredibly boring which is quite surprising since it was on Dali. Waldemar is not only knowledgable but a natural storyteller.
I love art history, but Waldemar Januszczak is the master of the outstanding presentation of masterpieces. We not only learn, we understand. Fantastic job on showing us Rome, the beautiful Caravaggio. Thank you so much!
I love Caravaggio. One of my favorite painters. So very dramatic and real. I can imagine going to these churches and viewing the paintings for the first time must have been a jaw dropping experience for the 17th century art lover. Never had anything like this been seen before. The drama. The light. And the amazingly real characters that populate Caravaggio's paintings looked like somebody you might pass on the street. It must have been a spectacle of unequaled proportions.
He is certainly the greatest painter of christian art,the second is El Greco in my opinion. People talk about Rembrandt but i find him boring,too bourgeois northern european protestant sensibility,aesthetics. Caravaggio move and excite you like few others
My daughter and I did a tour of Italy in 2007 and this church was the first we went into. And yes it was jaw dropping. I'll never forget going through that door and being totally immersed in history. Just wonderful.
And so murderous ha. He was a product of the times I guess. Italy, espec. Rome was a den of sin and opportunists. The Borgia family is a perfect 'bad' example of what he grew up with. Incl. The crooked Italian popes. So I understand. He ld paint but he wasn't a nice guy. Nope
Years back I went to an exhibit of Caravaggio's paintings at LACMA. My jaw dropped at the sight of the first painting and remained dropped through the whole show..... fortunately there were many other dropped jaws walking around so I wasn't too conspicuous 😮 I had never seen anything like it, haven't since.
Waldemar is matchless as a narrator for art. I deliberately go scoping out all art documentaries with Waldemar running the show. For me, if it's not Waldemar or Simon Schama doing the talking...I say "No, thanks," and keep looking.
Since i was in college..and im pushing 80...they finally have people who know what they are talking.about...u would. Not believe the bullshit i was taught about every single painting he.covered...and of.course u HAD to.agree with the idiot.professor.or u.failed
@@miguelsandigo1755 His name is Waldemar Januszczak. He was the host for numerous Perspective programs on art history and every one of them is engaging and enjoyable. He brings a real talent to each episode and writes them as well as hosting.
Among all the Perspectives that I've seen . This undoubtedly is the so well studied, fully knowledgeable of the great Painter Caravaggio. It's been so well masterfully narrated that each word was awaited . Excellent thanks so much for this beautiful documentary on Art.
He was a Master Painter with a twisted mind deplicting in his own views of what life Really was thru his eyes living n the horrors he felt being punished for his sin's!
That vase in the foreground: the way the light is painted, is stunning. At a purely technical level, I think it's the most successfully realized part of the scene. As for the lizard, when I first saw this picture, even after looking hard, I said, 'What lizard?' Ah.OK. That lizard.
Our world of video screens doesn't handle the dark end of the brightness spectrum well. Painters have no such limitation. They can really play in the shadows in a way that a film director can't.
I had a horrible experience. I was painting a picture of Caravaggio , busily intent on getting the eyes just right. It was late at night. All of a sudden, I had a feeling somebody standing behind me. I looked behind me,thinking my husband was there. I went into the living room where my husband was fast asleep. I returned to my easel and returned to my painting, picking up my brush, I had only done a few more strokes before I was overwhelmed by feelings of pure fear and horror. I abandoned my painting. The minute I stopped ,so did the feelings of fear. The next three nights, the same events kept happening. I had never done any research on Caravaggio and was shocked to learn about the kind of person Caravaggio was. I abandoned thr Caravaggio project. My next 4 portraits were equally disturbing as I began to experience really disturbing feelings as well. I no longer paint any artists portraits. It is as though I am channeling the thoughts, emotions and desires of whoever I am painting. Say what you will, we don't know how the mind works. I believe I actually am putting myself in contact with artists long dead. I am uncomfortable doing that. The Caravaggio portrait made me feel I was in the presence of something evil and menacing. Not every portrait of an artist who was deceased was that bad. I tried doing a picture of Starry night and wound up seriously depressed. I tried Frieda Kahlo; Gustav Courbet with the results that I had severe back aches and with Gustav Courbet I actually had the impression I contacted a truly corrupt,devious mind. That is it! From then on, I started doing needle point lace in the Venetian style. It came out beautiful. I actually feel like I am in Venice when I am working on it. I continually receive new ideas on making the lace and different projects to try. I am convinced that in the act of creating anything, we actually "connect" with other dimensions and realities. If so,is it possible perhaps to be in touch with the spirits/ personalities of artists long deceased? Who knows. For now, I am sticking with making lace as I feel happy and safe doing that
This narrator's vocal attack, in his loud and obnoxious style, is the exact opposite of the profound depth and beauty that is contained in these works of art. He should be an announcer for professional wrestling instead or learn to STFU.
There is no hard Proof on the topic, Same as the existence of “the Soul” (which almost would be necessary for your experience to be “true”) has and will probably Never be Proven. I’m not saying your experiences aren’t true I believe your end of the story 100%. You could do a little experiment yourself actually. For example, use your courage a last time and pick 3, 5 or X amount of artists from a rather hard time in history but make sure you don’t do ANY actual research on them, then proceed to paint their portrait and see what happens, after you have an experience you can recheck if the emotions the painting provoked actually matched some parts of the emotions the painter xy had, but because in that case you didn’t knew before the results would be more precise, just imagine you have this great sense of fear just to then do your research and find out the painter had the best life imaginable for the time and died without pain. If I were to make a hypothesis I would think that the first to you experienced that, you maybe had some sort of anxiety because you knew Caravaggio was brutal and you stared at the painting maybe at night as you stated, everybody was asleep which depending on your personal experiences could maybe be some sort of room for nerves. (Based on the thought that a lot of people fear the dark, fear being alone, often due to childhood trauma often unconnected) the second time and all the following times you had already made your mind up, you could say that “conformation bias”, a healthy phenomenon to basically create the self to some extend has led you to be more likely to proof your own theory, leading to you experiencing the same or similar things over and over. There has been similar projects from people trying to figure out if you could force seeing “ghosts” or “monsters” and the person who tried it actually made it happen. He didn’t sleep for 72h watching horror films over and over again in that period and at the peak of his sleepiness and exhaustion he sat in front of a mirror in the dark only holding a candle in his hand to light up the room, he then stated that a person appeared behind him. To find a reasonable end to this without assuming anything -> the mind is a deep deep sea and it can create all kinds of fun, curiosity but also horror. Greetings
He disfigured a courtesan who refused him. He fought with a waiter over an artichoke dish and he killed someone, possibly due to a game of tennis. His paints contained very high levels of lead and he was known to be messy with them. Lead poisoning would explain his erratic behaviour and may have contributed to his early death, although he had infected wounds and possibly heat stroke. As somebody who had lead poisoning as a toddler, as did both parents, I promise you that lead can be absorbed through the skin. No ingestion is required, although the water pipes would also have been lead.
Fever from infection & heat stroke would surely have caused erratic behavior. Not discounting the lead poisoning theory though, it can mimic a lot of things & can also be fatal. What a sad life for such a big talent.
And there were great composers who committed murder -the most prominent being Carlo Gesualdo a near contemporary of Caravaggio who had his wife and her lover murdered.A later one who committed murder was Stradella.
Waldeman! I'm so happy you have created this "Perspective" channel on youtube. I have skirted about hulu and amazon for years trying to catch you. I have never seen any of the short pieces you've filmed; and having a binging blasts.
Wonderful as usual. However in defence of Caravaggio, you're a trail of his killing of Tommasoni is inaccurate. He inadvertently killed him by cutting his femoral artery in his leg. There is ample contemporary evidence and record of this.
@@archiedriver There has: Derek Jarman made a fascinating film, with Nigel Terry as Caravaggio and Tilda Swinton as Lena. I loved it and would recommend it, if you can find it Edit: You probably know this by now, and may have seen it!
Seeing the Carravagio Bachhus in real life, is disturbing and exhilarating. Carravagio makes him feel like a corrupting, threatening presence. I was with my daughter and felt protective towards her with him there! That Gorgon shield is legitimately terrifying too. So completely three-dimensional that you feel like edging away without turning your back on it!
Caravaggio an artist of such deep insight on a daily basis often overlooked by every day onlookers His powers of observation combined with the ability to construct complex scenarios of everyday life made him a great artist but spoiled by his adverse attitude to all others
1) Incorrect video title. No mention of "dying in mystery". No mention of dying, period. 2) Why does he growl all the time? Does he think it makes what he says more interesting? 3) He's wearing women's glasses, but it works for him. However they are crooked, one side is higher than the other. He should ask an optician to re-adjust them.
The most astounding thing about carovagio, is that he nearly always put himself in those painted scene. Sometimes he's the hero, and, or the villain within the same picture. Young Carovagio may be holding the head of himself, just to say sorry: to a Cardinal. That's something that transcends branding. The man had flaws. His rivals wrote his biography, but can you picture yourself in anybody else's shoes? Carovagio did that a lot.
It would be amazing to see all the old nasty varnish taken off and new put on so we can see what the artist actually intended for his painting to look like. Leaving nasty aged varnish on the diminishes the color and depth. I guess some may like that "aged" look but to me it just looks like dirty old yellow varnish and God only knows what else all over it, stealing the color and life from the true art work.
Very well done, as always. However, with your help, I’ve developed my own ideas regarding Boy Bitten by a Lizard, homosexuality and Caravaggio and … his angry personality. I suspect that, in some way, it’s based on his personal early experience as a young rube attempting to make a go of it in the big city. i.e. - He’d traded in sex to make ends meet and would brook no disrespect from those among his street tough associates who regarded this as a weakness in him.
At last, idcook, brought out the hidden .....yes...homosexuality...has been forever...why has it always been persecuted ?? Men and women are born and as such...they have to live their lives !!
I was under the impression from recent Biography on Caravaggio that the murder was accidental, and that he cut the femoral artery of the person he had called to the "Tennis court" which was code for a duel that cutting the persons leg was a move that usually brought the match to a end but that in doing this he accidentally cut his artery. which resulted in his opponent diying
Waldemar Januszczak is painfully missed. The aesthetic insights he expresses are dazzling profundities, that miraculously unfold. Not to see him in fresh new Perspective offerings is a serious travesty. The agonizing loss of his presence in new offerings is another frightening blow for the yearning of the masses. Humanizing gestures of artistic perceptions can liberate by his unpretentious persona. Waldemar Januszczak has the capacity to inform with wonder, sensitivity, and generosity of spirit, that entertains while uplifting his audience, to the lofty realm that only art can provide. My thanks to the producers of Perspective for seeing his genius.
Well... many artists have been more or less involved in crimes..In France Bertrand Cantat, famous rock singer, beat his girlfriend to death... he did 4 or 5 years in prison for that...Phil Spector huge rock producer (he worked with the beatles & many other great names) finished his life in jail for murder...I even read once that there was a rumour about John Lennon having killed a guy when he was touring in Hamburg with the beatles.. Robert Blake, american actor quite famous at his time, has been involved in a murder as well..
@@HaroldHivart And the great Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo a near contemporary of Caravaggio murdered his wife and her lover.He pretended to go on a hunting excursion (he was a very wealthy Italian prince)but instead hung around as he suspected his wife was having an affair with a very handsome man and Gesualdo caught them in flagrante delicto (doing it!) and killed both.Gesualdo's music is amazing for those in the know because it has dissonances and things like that in it that didn't appear again in music until the 20th century.Another composer who is supposed to have killed someone -this time the greatest composer Mozart was Antonio Salieri -it's the plot of the famous play and movie "Amadeus."
@@kaloarepo288Antonio Salieri is supposed to kill none, that's a ridiculous lie built up by the typically inaccurate hollywood style movie " Amadeus". Not only Salieri did not make any plot , but he also helped Mozart both as teacher for free and as manager getting job to him .
Since the researcher theory in 2009, its possible he used optical devices. The hand of the boy - now isn't that too small for a true perspective? Our visual schooling has encountered a lifetime of lens based images, so we can perceive a photographic chiaroscuro as well as expecting lens to object distance magnification changes.
I would qualify the title a bit. Caravaggio is the only great artist to commit murder that we know about. It seems possible to me that of all the great artists, there are probably many crimes and misdemeanors that were never documented. Caravaggio was just so belligerent that people took notice. But there might be someone else. I am only saying it is possible.
i think his reading of Caravaggio is way off. Caravaggio wasn't a moralist. He was a libertine. Operating at a time when all things of antiquity were being revived. Nothing is simple, so yes these more basic morals were on the surface his work, but what makes them great is that ambiguity which comes out through his actual nature and psychology which he's obviously revealing (which is the opposite of moralistic).
If by "artist" we include (as we should) composers, another famous killer artist of the same period was Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa. He wrote great complex and tormented madrigals.
Your station is appalling. There's literally a commercial every 4 minutes. So, 5 commercial for this 24 min video. No, more like 9, as was forced to watch 2 twice. Appalling.
@@etherealtb6021 Well nothing is free man, least you can do is suffer the forced ads as an exchange for watching it (for free). Edit: I hate it too btw.
In his time, it took courage to paint in ultra-realism. Art buyers wanted divine beauty! Caravaggio followed the voice from within! BTW: The boy and the lizard, as well as the boy with the Lute, are clearly a self portraits.
actually, the boy and lizard, the lute player, boy with basket of fruit, the cardsharp, bacchus, and the fortune teller and more are all generally agreed to be of one of caravaggio’s companions and models, Mario Minniti!!
The Cardsharps is part of the permanent collection at Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum. A few years ago, the museum hosted a Caravaggio exhibition. Many of his works have religious themes; some, if not the majority, were in fact commissioned by the Church. His painstaking renderings of severed heads, including one on a platter and another clutched by the hair, show the viewer the indisputably beneficial effects of religion on the people in ancient times.
Yes ! I think you're right. Back then there were no cameras, an easy tool that we have the luxury to enjoy these days. His times were very violent , and religion was very much involved in that. Kinda ironic. (A kind God allows vicious mayhem, hmm.) 👍💜🌿🌱
A marvelous genre painting and a profound interpretation by Januszczak, but Caravaggio's "masterpiece?" [I'll ignore the usual error in assuming that "masterpiece" meant a single, greatest work among an artist's output. It used merely to mean a work created by an artist who had successfully advanced through the apprentice and journeyman stages of the craft.] I find several of his religious paintings to be more moving, more effective, and more ground-breaking (and I'm not remotely religious). Still, I love these Perspective videos.
If that was a self portrait sketch by Carravaggio brillent eye for truth. Look at those eyes they look at you. In poverty artists who prefer oil on canvas could not afford the paint or materials Nothing has changed here struggling artists still exist.
Instant subscriber. You are like the fabulous art history instructor one had in school. In my case, Ms. Gregor Goethals, who taught at RISD. Also Dirk Bach, who taught Asian art 😌 17:46 he confesses to having been a party boy! 😀 20:30 digitus imputicus! 😀😀😀
Another mystery I did not know existed, solved, by the master story teller art historian Lord Waldemar. I dont know if he really is a lord, i suppose not, but his name demands a title as does his entertaining demeanor and great knowledge of art mysteries. It is one thing to know art, it is yet another to understand, or even try to understand, the mysteries layered into each masterpiece. What good fun.
Des génies et des fous, où un génie-fou dans ce monde déjà fou. NB: Certains peintres ont quand même dit que le Caravage avait tué la peinture. Aurait-il donc tué 2 fois?
Waldemar, Vladimir, Volodymor -- they all mean Ruler of the World. Zelensky means: Z -- Omega el -- God EnKi ensky minus ssssssss Epochal Eclipse April 8th 2024. hint: Apocalypse does NOT mean destruction Matthew 16: 4 Jonah 3: 4-5, 8 Jonah 4: 11 (it's really on the 9th)
I have always "related" to your insights and narratives on numerous artists. Many art documentaries I've seen on public television with you as their host, have opened my eyes and heart to artists that I hadn't fully studied before. Thank you for this video today..much to learn and to think about with Caravaggio. ❤ 🎨✨️💖
Very funny explanation about the meaning of the Digitus Impudicus. But, as an Italian - an old one - I can say I've never seen using that gesture by Italians - unless they're young ones who like to use foreign expressions. Also, there are many "traditional" gestures used to indicate an homosexual… but not that one. It's considered a typical Anglosaxon gesture. WJ is a great entertainer and connoisseur of art but as an historian he very often hits walls here and there.
Ok, you made me look up "The Martyrdom of St. Matthew" when you said it showed the murder happening in a Roman bathhouse -- that's not what it looks like though. That's because it's *not* showing a bathhouse, but instead shows converts awaiting baptism in a temple after Mass. That makes a huge difference since a bathhouse would have one connotation, while a temple would have another. Symbolism and metaphor are everything in paintings like this. The difference between Matthew being murdered while hanging out with a bunch of half-naked men doing a mundane activity vs. Matthew hanging around with some half-naked men while fulfilling a particularly holy rite -- night and day for how the painting should be read. I'm not religious, have never been a Catholic so have no stakes in various saints, but as an artist with an interest in art history, details like that matter if you want to understand what's happening/what the artist is trying to say.
Interesting interpretation of Caravaggio!! The narrator is irritating and obnoxious, and prone to extreme interpretation. However, I did enjoy seeing a few of Caravaggio's paintings.
Yes but he is totally on wrong track over his rendition of Mary Magdalana .She never existed nor Jesus Christ .Not one historic record exists as as a historian myself one researched deeply . He goes his joyful him self into taking this subject on .He should stick to his painters .this one is really enjoyable as he has a knack of pulling you in to facts he can recall
Very interesting analysis. I find this picture very strange in that I always see an angry mature effeminate male head on a childs body....they don't match up.
Another wonderful film! Thank you Waldemar! You are teaching me so much about the nuances and symbolism of great art. I enjoy the intellectual insight and you allow me to understand deeper levels of beautiful art!
